Challenges of Public Health

Editor: Imrana Quadeer

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About

India: Social Development Report 2014 looks at the state of health policies in India and assesses its dynamics—its failures and triumphs—suggesting, through essays and empirical data, ways of improving the existing conditions. Four parts comprise the report which:

  • Focusses on the nature of development itself, agricultural, nutritional and welfare policies, legislation, and welfare programmes and their implication for health.
  • Evaluates different aspects of health and health services, offering positive insights and delineating the challenges it faces; it assesses the existing trends and outcomes of liberalisation and health sector reforms from different perspectives and in different priority areas such as women’s health, hospital and health service systems.
  • Develops further the CSD Social Development Index by extending its coverage to north-eastern states, offering comparisons between gender, social classes and rural and urban population; showing the close link between health and other development indices; and
  • Takes stock of the challenges and hurdles faced by the country’s health system and focuses on a vision of the future of public sector health services in the country emphasising the primacy of politics.

The Social Development Report 2014 is a window to what happens when unfettered policy transition support commodification of the health service for a purely growth-oriented development. It presents evidence of the resulting dependence on the private sector, the undermining of public sector health services, and social welfare conductive to health. Lessons from within the country and abroad indicate that the crisis in the health sector can be tackled if state health services are revived and a broader vision of public health guides policy.

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Contents

Foreword by Muchkund Dubey
Challenges of Public Health in India Today: An Introduction by Imrana Qadeer

PART I

Contextualising Public Health

  1. Social Development and Economic Progress: Some Reflections on the Relationship: Deepak Nayyar
  2. Agrarian Crisis, Farmers’ Distress, and Exclusionary Growth: K.B. Saxena
  3. Aspects of Food Security: The Production and Absorption of Food Grains in India in Recent Years: Utsa Patnaik
  4. In the Name of the Poor: Urban Growth and Renewal: Dunu Roy
  5. Equitable Access to Drinking Water through Public Private Partnership: A Myth or Reality Gaurav Dwivedi
  6. Before or After Birth? Mortality, Sex Selection, and the Girl Child: Mary E. John
  7. The Reluctant State: Lacunae in Current Child Health and Nutrition Policies and Programmes in India: Vandana Prasad and Dipa Sinha
  8. Locating Health in the Movement against Manual Scavenging: Usha Ramanathan and Beswada Wilson

PART II  

Lessons Learned From Public Health Interventions

  1. Rebuilding Trust in Health Service Systems: Lessons from the South African Experience: Rama V. Baru              
  2. How has Tamil Nadu Fared under NRHM: An Introspection: Girija Vaidyanathan
  3. Tamil Nadu: A Critical Engagement: Rakhal Gaitonde
  4. Success and Constraints of the National Rural Health Mission: Is there a Need for Course Correction for India’s Move towards Universal Health Coverage?: Rajesh Narwal                
  5. Developments  in India’s Domestic Pharmaceutical Sector and Implications for Universal Health Care in India: Biswajit Dhar and Reji Joseph
  6. Shifts in Medical Research: Influence of Private Capital: Sandhya Srinivasan
  7. Medical Knowledge, Policy, and People: Medicinal Plants and the Demand for Ayurvedic Medicines:  Madhulika Banerjee
  8. Publicly Financed Health Insurance Schemes in India: How Effective are They in Providing Financial Risk Protection?:  Sakthivel Selvaraj, Anup K. Karan and Indranil Mukhopadhyay
  9. Design, Implementation, and Patient Experiences of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and Vajpayee Arogyashree Scheme: A Qualitative Study from Bangalore District, Karnataka: Akhila Vasan, Sylvia K. Arpagam and Vijayakumar Seethappa
  10. Public Private Partnership in Healthcare: Trajectories and Experiences from West Bengal: Bijoya Roy
  11. The Commercialisation of Public Health Services: Perspectives from Three States— West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh: Kasturi Sen, Samir Guha Roy, Shuba Kumar and Kethineni V.Narayana
  12. Birthing Experiences of Marginalised Women in a Peri-urban Public Health System: A Qualitative Study of Maternity Care: Nalini Visvanathan and Monika Walia
  13. Must History Repeat Itself? The Role of Dais in Maternity Care in Backward Districts of Himachal Pradesh: Imrana Qadeer, Bijoya Roy, and Sandhya Gautam
  14. Poor Women’s Health and Stresses of Life: A Case Study from Pauri Garhwal: Ramila Bisht
  15. Singrauli: Development, but at Whose Cost?: Vasudha A. and Ragini Prem

PART III  

Social Development Index

  1. Social Development Index 2014: Surajit Deb

PART IV

Way Forward

  1. A Vision for an Alternate Public Health Service for India: Debabar Banerji
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